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Thursday, July 22, 2010

"The BOX"

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I have mentioned to a few of you about E's "weekly box" but I have never blogged about it. I figured why not now?

When I was concerned about E being colorblind, I got such wonderful comments & E-mails from my readers with suggestions, though none of them seemed fitting for E. So I started doing a lot of research and Dr. Google & I were becoming good pals.

I was finding that a lot of children who excel in other areas sometimes will "lag" (for lack of a better word) in one pronounced area. E's must have been colors. I mean my kiddo was counting to 10 alone before her 2nd birthday. She knows her ABCs & can sing you any nursery rhyme-y song you request.

But colors, were/are her weakness. She knew the names of all of them but matching the name with the actual color was where she was troubled.

So after various research and talking to other toddler/older kid moms & early childhood aged teachers; I adapted something for E.

We call it "E's Weekly Box". It is given to her MONDAY AM after breakfast. A big deal is made about the box so she is excited to open it and see what "treasures" lie inside.

We do a COLOR, LETTER, SHAPE & NUMBER of the week. I know it sounds like a lot. 4 things to focus on but how I have adapted it she seems to do well. I am also seeing a huge improvement on her color recognition.

Inside the box lies a letter written by mommy [me] on a piece of paper that is the COLOR of the week. The letter states what we will be focusing on that week. E & I go over that and she moves on to her "treasures".

The contents of the box or "treasures" as E calls them are things found around the house, in E's toybox, anywhere. I am creative & keep it cheap(as in $0-$1).

Everything in the box for that week is the color of the week. To really put emphasis on the color.

Once we have gone over everything in the box and she has had time to play with and talk about her treasures we put them back in the box, for the next day. Its done every day, at the same time. We're big on routine here. Then usually Mon or Tues we go on a hunt around the house and collect as many things that are the color, shape, START WITH the letter for that week & add them to our box.

E likes arts & crafts and when we do arts we focus on that weeks COLOR, LETTER, SHAPE & NUMBER.

As for the numbers she is good, she can count to 20 alone now, we're working towards 25. I just want her to recognize the numbers when she sees them quicker then she does & on her first try. We have about 4 or 5 1-10 puzzles and she does those so quick, girl loves her puzzles, but I think its different just seeing the number.

Over all I am very pleased with how this is working, as I have expressed to some (Candice did a similar idea with her son). E really enjoys the box. She knows she gets it after she eats her breakfast. I really like mondays b/c its all new. E is just so animated, about everything. It really makes doing things like "the weekly box" that much more fun.

Even better she has no idea she is learning.

**Tell me, Do you do anything special with your littles to keep their brains firing & get them ready for pre-school? (OMG thats in about 8 mons for E...growing up too fast!)

I've worked as a preschool teacher for 6 years. I worked with 2 year olds for 3 years, 3 year olds for 2 years and 4 year olds for 1 year. So there are MANY activities i could suggest but from what you describe I think she really ready for preschool. I'm glad you work with her at home, you'd be surprised how many parents do not work with their children on these basic things.

One "game" that i play that ages 3-4 are CRAZY about is really a game to build their pre-math skills. I call it "Whats missing" and i make a HUGE deal about this game. I get about 5 items (more or less depending on the level of the children) you could use the items from her weekly box. I lay out all the items in front of me and we count them together, then we identify each item example(Car, Blue, Starts with C and we do the C sound, the wheels are a Circle) we identify all the items together then i ask how many do we have and they say 5 and i point to each idem they identify it then i put the blanket over all the items and i put my hand under and grab something and move it into my lap where they cant see it. Then I remove the blanket and something magically disappeared and I ask whats missing and they tell me. I ask how many items do we have now and how many DID we have and how many items are missing. I continue the process until there is only one item left. I dont think I've ever had a child that wasnt interested in this game. They get soo excited hopefully E will too!

If you have any other questions feel free to email me lasue26@gmail.com

Wow Kelli, those are some awesome boxes. A lot fancier than mine. I used to go around the house with an old diaper box and add things related to my theme. I had themes like: colors, shapes, ABCs, the farm, food, bug...something different each week. I love your idea. You're motivating me to get back onto doing it again. :)